


Legacy of a World Restored

by BeastofZodiac



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Oseram culture, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-07 21:31:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10369890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeastofZodiac/pseuds/BeastofZodiac
Summary: After the defeat of HADES, the world is left changed, but still turning. New sunrise comes and with it, new roads to follow. Aloy finds herself seeking a new goal and stumbles upon some old secrets that can cast a very long shadow.





	1. Left Behind (Gates of Meridian)

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I may write something more story-heavy than a simple character essay, and just like that, Horizon came around and became my newest chew-toy. I hope I give its characters justice.
> 
> (I was mildly confused by the lack of... lets call it “presence” of some of the allies – especially Talanah – in the closing events, so I tried to address that, too).
> 
> Takes place after the final battle of Meridian.

HADES was dead.

Three days later, and it was still hard to believe. The fight was over. The world... and life in it... have been saved. Eclipse and their insane leader cast down. A temporary reprieve, Aloy knew, since GAIA was still in disrepair and the whole system of Zero Dawn would eventually crumble without her oversight. Still, it was a victory worth commemorating. Meridian broke into celebrations that would probably last a fortnight before they gradually spill over into rebuilding efforts and real fallout of the battle is truly felt.

“You sound quite sure about that,” Aloy remarked, casting her companion a doubting glance.

“Call it, dunno... an educated guess,” Erend answered, then added with more thoughtful tone: “I’ve seen it before. It was the same after the Liberation.” They loaded last of the packs on Aloy’s Strider. “At first, people just can’t get enough of, you know. Being alive.”

Aloy couldn’t help but recall the voices of the Old ones when they themselves were left with nothing but death in their own future. If she tried, she’d probably find herself remembering the metadata of every such recording stored in her Focus. Names included.

She shook her head to chase the thought away and fastened the wire holding the pack in place, turning her attention back to Erend’s voice.

“... because at first, they won’t let that in. It’s gonna be just lots of drinking and talking and--” the Oseram man abruptly stopped, earning himself a questioning eyebrow raised over the Strider’s back. “...aaand other... celebratory... things.”

She couldn’t tell for sure, but Aloy could swear she saw Erend’s ears turn slightly more red with every other word. “Really, what things?”

“Just, you know, things!” Yup, definitely red. “People do things all the time, it’s not important part of the story,” Erend turned around, searching for where he’d left his hammer, trying to ignore the questioning pair of eyes drilling into his back. “And in about the week, Avad will bring out his architects and whatnot to set up a new gate in the ridge, repair the bridges to the Spire and start fixing Meridian the way it was.” He grabbed the hammer and put it over his shoulder, finally turning back to face the redhead Nora. “And that’s when the people who got hurt get around to start noticing the pain. Although the drinks will probably help.”

Aloy knew what and who he meant. Over four dozen soldiers lost their lives in the initial attack alone. Many more got injured, maimed or worse in the battle that came after. Uthid got hit with a shrapnel from an exploded Bellowback. If it wasn’t for Vanasha’s help, he’d have lost his head. Talanah ended up with a nasty gash on the side of her skull. Even though she claimed the only hurt thing was her pride – since the wound was caused by a Watcher that’d managed to sneak up on her when she was busy putting her arrow through a Ravager’s lens – she couldn’t even stand and go signal the city when the Deathbringer at the Spire went down. Nil was nowhere to be found, and Aloy wasn’t sure if that was normal with him or not. Nakoa left three fingers in the jaws of a crazed Scrapper. Sona broke an arm under falling debris.

Erend lost four members of his Vanguard. And Aloy was way too aware that staying alive came with its pains, too. She just wasn’t sure he knew as well.

“Ready to go?”

“Antsy, are we?” Now it was Erend’s turn for a questioning look. When it was left without answer, he just shrugged. “As much as I’ll ever be.”

And so, with little else said, they headed north and uphill, towards what Aloy’s Focus was now able to identify as Eagle Canyon and further into the Cut-Cliffs. The Strider, momentarily readjusted to be a beast of burden, trotting obediently behind them.

Aloy wanted to get out of the city before all the other Nora recuperate enough for their trek back east and try to convince her to follow. Or try to just follow the ‘Anointed’. She didn’t have much pulling her back to the Sacred lands. And she had an ancient AI to restore, which was something she wasn’t really keen on explaining to the Matriarchs.

The key lied somewhere in the other Zero Dawn facilities, which meant her journey would need to take her north. Deep into the Oseram territory. She planned to go alone. But Erend came around and said he’d be heading that way as well.

“Erend, why did you volunteer to go to the Claim?” she asked her companion when they were passing the canyon ridge.

“I, uh... to be honest, it was more being... voluntold,” the man replied with a grin. “Avad needed someone to go and pacify the ealdormen. When they hear half the Carja tried to burn the rest of the Carja, their first concern will be whether that leads to more Red Raids or not. They’d tighten the border. So Avad needed someone to convince them not to. I mean, I’ve hardly Ersa’s reputation, but mine’s still worth something.”

“And Avad needed someone he can trust and who won’t be shot at the border,” Aloy concluded.

“Pretty much.”

Midday was starting to give in to high noon just as they entered the narrow canyon near the Cut-Cliffs mine. The mine’s foreman waved at Aloy in greetings, still happy his venture had one less Rockbreaker to worry about, then went back to yelling orders at his men preparing another payload of explosives. The walls of the canyon were cool and the sudden change in temperature raised the hair down Aloy’s spine. The path was just wide enough for one of them at the same time.

“Aloy?”

“Yes?”

“Can you tell me something?

The young Nora shot him a look over her shoulder. “Something? In particular, or do you just want to talk about the weather?”

Erend chuckled behind her back. “I’m sure you’d teach me even that. Even though, all you need to know when you run with the Carja is if the Sun’s showing or not... But no, I wondered if you could tell me, you know. About the ancients.”

“The Old ones?” Aloy was genuinely surprised. “Why?”

“I’m just curious. I mean, the things you had to see in the ruins...”

Old death and despair. And hopes and fears and a dream for a future. But that was very hard to explain to someone who hasn’t shared the experience.

“... and the things you know about the machines. I know my share about lots of them, but this,” Erend pointed to the Strider keeping its steady unwavering pace a few steps behind him. “This, I’m still at a loss for how you do it.”

Aloy smiled. “Fine. But in return...”

“Whatever you ask,” the Oseram said without waiting, half eager to sate his curiosity, half offering a close friend an honest affirmation of support.

“You’ll tell me more about the Claim,” Aloy requested, stepping over the dismantled remains of a Watcher that probably fell to its death from the ridge above.

“Of course,”he answered honestly, his tone making it clear she’d need just ask.

“So, about the Old ones...” Aloy gave a pause, thinking of where to start. “So, the Corruptors and Deathbringers that Eclipse drove up from the ground. It started when the Old ones made them for their war. Or maybe wars. They were designed on what people call Maker’s End.”

Walls of the canyon trembled as the mine set of its explosions.

“There was one man, his name was Ted Faro...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning: While I will not, to my best knowledge, break the established canon, I will weave a lot of my own into blank or story-ambiguous spaces. Be advised.
> 
> I hope to get to continue soon. Quick note, feedback makes me a happy camper.
> 
> I’m also not entirely sure where the apostrophe goes in Makers End...


	2. Unspoken Ends (Sobeck Farm)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enroute to the Claim, Aloy needs to make a little detour.

“I want to... need to do this alone.”

On the second day of their journey, when they camped for the night near the road fork heading for Pitchcliff, Aloy grew nervous. She tried to hide it, but Erend did notice the urgency with which she kept checking her Focus again and again, and how her gaze kept turning east, towards Glarebreak and beyond. So when he found her Strider stripped of its cargo and her ready to ride out the following morning, it didn’t leave him all that surprised. Just confused. She wanted to make a detour to east. Not more than two dozen miles – a quick trip for a machine running at full speed. And she wanted to go alone.

“Erend. **Please.** ”

Something in her voice made the Oseram man swallow all the questions and simply nod. “Okay.” He let the crowbar pommel of his hammer rest back against the ground and one of his shoulders twitched in what may have been intended as a shrug. “Do whatever you need to do. Don’t worry, I won’t run on ahead to save everyone without you,” he said with a wink, and when she turned to her mount, added more somberly: “I’ll wait here. Take however long you need.”

Aloy let the grim determined mask she held all night down a bit with a small thankful smile and climbed on the back of her Strider. “I’ll be back soon.” Without turning back, she bid the metallic beast to move down the overgrown path heading towards the hills. She needed to get last of the answers. The story wasn’t complete without them. Neither hers, nor Elisabet’s.

The Strider took a few quick steps, then broke into gallop, kicking up grass and dirt. Soon, the machine and its rider were nothing but small specks in the distance, gleaming metal and bright red hair shining in the sun.

Erend watched her for a while, trying his best to ignore the annoying tight feeling in his chest. It’s just that the morning was dusty, that was why. It would go away, he just needed to ignore it hard enough. She was obviously troubled by something and all of his instincts were nudging him to find a way to help. Accepting that there was nothing he could do but wait was harder to swallow than he expected.

The Oseram returned to the campfire and tried making himself comfortable for the time being. He was used to waiting around. Being Avad’s Vanguard somehow required lots of that. Waiting for scouts to return, people in charge to settle on their decisions, traps to get sprung... He didn’t think of himself as a man particularly good at waiting, but it was something he knew how to do.

He didn’t expect any trouble, anyway. The tiny encampment was hidden away, sheltered by tall rocks and rust-covered ancient metal beams, with the closest busier road half a mile away. A few furs and soft skins for two sleeping rolls and three bags of various supplies. Even if trouble came lurking this way, it would risk its neck for a meager bounty at best. The half-finished spear Aloy started constructing the previous night was probably the only thing really worth stealing, and if anyone wanted to risk a close encounter with an Oseram hammer for it, Erend would be more than happy to oblige.

It was almost two days after she asked him to stay behind when he finally saw the blue light of a Strider’s lens appear in the murky shadows of early dawn.

“Aloy!” he exclaimed happily in greeting when he was sure she’s within earshot.

The mount kept its monotone walking pace until it stopped just outside of the dimly lit circle around the campfire and the Nora huntress got off its back. When she hit the ground, she felt the pouch with Elisabet’s little globe talisman bounce off her leg. She swallowed, momentarily glad the Strider’s broad form hides her from view.

After a brief pause, she finally let go of the machine's side and joined the Oseram man at the campfire, sitting down on the sleeping bag at his side.

Erend didn’t prod her with questions, he just waited, occasionally casting a glance sideways to study her expression. And she couldn’t say she wasn’t grateful. Even though their trip, however brief, had the man learn more about the Old ones than anyone except Sylens – which, admittedly, wasn’t a high bar to break – she had barely time to scratch the surface of the larger story. And explaining who Elisabet Sobeck was to her and what she meant was one of those things Aloy wasn’t sure she wanted to do not just now, but at all. Let alone on a dusty mesa in the middle of nowhere with Glinthawks screeching in the background.

But she wasn’t sure what to say instead, either. He deserved an explanation, or at least a few words, but she wouldn’t know where to start.

“Thank you.” It was as good a start as any.

“No problem,” he replied softly and shifted to poke the few stray burning coals back into a more decent pyre. “So... did you... get things done? Where you went, I mean.” He picked his words carefully, stumbling through them with uneven footing like he used to do with Ersa whenever there was something he wanted to know but didn’t really want to ask.

Aloy seemed intent on studying the shape of pebbles at her feet. “Yes,” she answered quietly after a while. Her hand absentmindedly wandered back to the pouch at her side. “There was... something I had to finish.”

He didn’t really expect her to continue after the pause she took, thinking the topic will just fade away into awkward silence, but she continued. “I had to see someone. Tell her that her work is alive.” She rarely sounded emotional, and her tone made Erend turn around to face her. He was surprised to find her expression matching her voice – veiled with sadness but also full of strange peace, as if...

 _‘As if she was making peace with someone she’d lost,’_ Erend’s mind added. Suddenly, even her haunted look made sense. He'd seen it more than he'd like to count in recent memory. He didn’t know who it was she'd lost – she only ever mentioned Rost when talking about people she’d mourned, but the man figured he’d better not ask at all, careful stumbling or no.

“It’s alright now,” she added, more to herself than to answer her companion, and let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. Then shook her head as if she tried to push memories aside and finally, for the first time since her arrival, looked at Erend. “What were **you** up to?” she asked him, sounding a bit more like herself.

“Eh, not much.” If a change of the subject was what she needed, he wouldn't object. He scooted back to her side and shrugged. “I just got attacked by a vicious beast that has the bravest hunters screaming in terror.”

“Wow.” Aloy raised an eyebrow at his choice of dramatic storytelling. “And did the poor Watcher get away?”

“Just a Watcher?! Ouch.” Mock indignation only lasted a few seconds before one of them broke the act and they started chuckling at the thought. Erend felt a small but significant point of pride at his ability to cheer her up.

“So what was it?” the Nora asked. She collected herself a bit, but the slight grin didn’t really leave her face anymore.

Erend gestured to the roasted half-eaten remains of what Aloy’s Focus – with some trouble – identified as a raccoon. Or what was left of one, anyway.

“A vicious beast indeed,” she nodded, tongue sharp with sarcasm. “I see you made it pay for trespassing. By turning it into... what, early breakfast?”

“It’s called petty revenge. It bit me.”

Aloy looked him over. He wasn’t wearing his usual Vanguard plate, but even with lighter gear he'd picked up for the trip, she had trouble imagining how the raccoon would leave any lasting damage. Given enough time, it would probably choke on the glove. Amusing as the image was of the fierce battle that must had taken place here, the doubting eyebrow shot back up.

Erend either missed it, or elected to ignore it.

“Help yourself to some if you want. It’s probably still warm,” he pointed vaguely towards the meat.

Aloy bit her lip. “We... really should get going soon.”

Now it was Erend’s turn for doubting glances. “I think we can spare an hour or two for you to get some rest. You spent how long on the back of that thing?”

She knew he was being reasonable. And not ‘we’ll kick the door down because we can’t waste time looking for a key’ reasonable, just... well, reasonable. It made her scowl in protest like she used to do when she was little. She'd swear she could hear Rost's laughter echoing somewhere in her mind.

“The world’s not gonna end if you sleep for a bit.”

“I don’t know, it tends to try and do that.” Judging from her tone, she was clearly joking, but he honestly couldn’t tell if she was exaggerating all that much.

“Okay, fair point,” he put his hands up, conceding. “Hey, how about this: I’m gonna watch it. If it tries, I’ll tell it to wait a damn bit. Deal?”

She looked up at him. He grew slightly confused under the sudden scrutiny, but didn’t flinch. And Aloy realized what was it she felt when she returned to the camp: relief. She could let her guard down and know her back was still being covered. Not out of worship or fear, but out of genuine care to see her safe. Not caged,  **safe.** The same feeling had dragged her back from eastern lands and towards Meridian... friends. ‘Grow up,’ Erend’s sister told him before she died. Just maybe, he didn’t need to grow as much as he thought.

“Deal,” she finally agreed.

“Well, good,” he sounded relieved. “Thought I’d have to try and tie you down. Wasn’t really looking forward getting my ass kicked.”

Erend leaned back against the rock he grew comfortable with in the past two days. “It’s not that far to the Claim, anyway. We’ll be there in about five days, if the pass is clear. Official parties usually take the main road, but us locals have a shortcut. So we can spare the moment.”

He looked down, to where Aloy’s cheek rested against his shoulder. She was fast asleep, with a small time-worn blue orb clutched in her palm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Considering the Oseram clothing preferences, you’re gonna wake up with some very amusing pressure marks, Aloy.
> 
> I have to say, it’s interesting to try and tackle the difference of attitude she has towards her own tribe and towards the people in Meridian. Understandable difference, but still fun to poke at. But yeah, I can hardly imagine her being all that comfortable around another Nora. Or vice versa, really, since the whole ‘Anointed’ thing. 
> 
> Also, the game is very unhelpful in regards of the exact location of the Sobeck Farm (probably on purpose), so I’m pretty sure I got that one wrong. It couldn’t have been much further from GAIA Prime however; the exosuits don’t really look like they could sustain one for all that long.
> 
> Thank you for all the feedback! It feeds me well...


	3. Seeking Thrills (Pitchcliff)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crossing the border into the Oseram territory brings a few challenges. Including one Erend would like to avoid.

With another day passing, the mountain ridge marking the border of the Claim was finally within reach. The two travelers had passed Pitchcliff the previous afternoon, but Aloy insisted they just resupplied and spent the night a bit further from the settlement. They weren’t exactly in a hurry, but she didn't mind gaining a bit more ground before sunset. She also didn’t want to leave her mount outside the gates overnight, seeing as she wouldn’t really appreciate finding nothing but two dead Glinthawks and a Strider leg come morning. And taking it inside wouldn’t have been much better, especially since the locals had quite a few unfortunate stories to share about overly friendly mechanical wildlife.

Even though it was past dawn, the morning sun had yet to rise from behind the eastern peaks. The young Nora was already awake. She’d finished the work on her spear and was now merely perfecting the weapon – making sure any stray wires are tucked in well and pulling at the protruding parts so nothing comes loose at the worst possible moment.

Erend was still sound asleep. The weather had made them camp early the previous evening, and although the dry gully they had settled in shielded them from most of the elements, they had little choice than to spend the time sitting under heavy furs and close to the fire – Aloy tinkering and sharing a thousand year old secrets, Erend asking questions. And he had many of them.

The man spent most of the time staring into flames, constantly frowning as if that could help him imagine things he’d never seen and people he’d never met. Aloy could easily relate, with memory still fresh of how finding the deep buried secrets of the Earth had made her feel. None of those feelings could be described as pleasant. When she had set her weapon aside to go to sleep, Erend was still awake, muttering something needing 'a stiff one-- drink, that is!'.

Aloy’s musings were suddenly interrupted as her Focus picked up a movement nearby. She turned on the advanced UI and scanned her surroundings. The intruder was immediately apparent. Some thirty paces downhill, a familiar energy signature of a terraforming machine was climbing the slope, looking for things to consume. The Focus identified it as a Charger.

Aloy looked at her Strider. It just stood where she left it the previous night, its inner systems quietly humming, just barely breaking the silence. It didn’t move an inch, waiting for new input. Its blaze canister was almost depleted. Aloy wondered if she could make the tame machine regress into some sort of an idle routine and return to its primary programming when not in use, so it could refill its fuel by itself. But for now, the stray Charger could offer its parts for a temporary solution.

New spear in hand and eager to test it, the Nora huntress swiftly got up from the furs and started moving downhill towards the wandering machine with practiced ease.

The Charger was grazing, servos on its jaw working on the tough dry twigs and roots. Its horns kept constantly realigning, ready to cut down stronger wood in its path. The noise covered up any sound Aloy’s approach could have made. A quick sidestep from the machine’s blind angle and she could thrust the spear up the Charger’s side. Only halfway through her attack, the Nora noticed a second Charger following in to graze nearby. The tip of the weapon dove right through the mostly unprotected belly, tearing the wires and ripping the vital systems apart. The wound opened wide, full of sparks, its synthetic guts freely bleeding out. The tormented metal let out several horrifying screeks and the Charger collapsed on the ground, its systems dead.

The second Charger immediately went on full alert. Harvesting systems stopped, horns returned into idle position; all capacity of the simple pseudo-AI focused on assessing the situation. Head raised high, it started moving to investigate the cause of the alarm.

Aloy dove back into the tall grass, pressing her body to the ground. She stilled her breathing, listening for her prey. She could also hear slow steps shifting rocks on the slope above. Erend had to be awake.

The Charger was some twelve paces away. Aloy’s hand tightened around the spear. She didn’t really have a need for another set of machine parts. Freshly restocked on most items, it was more than they could carry. But she couldn’t let it go, either. Nine paces. The machine was still alert, but unfocused, which told Aloy that her companion had to dive out of sight. Just six paces away. If she reached out now, she could gently poke it with a spear. Had the beast kept wandering around unchecked, it would eventually either find one of them, or just walk right into the camp, both possibilities ending with a fight. Switching a subroutine, the machine’s body let out what sounded like a questioning chirp, yellow eyes searching through the terrain. Aloy really wasn’t keen on angering a Charger. Just four more paces. Then, an idea popped up in her head and brought a cheeky grin to her face. Two paces to go.

With the speed of a pouncing Stalker, Aloy sprung forward and drove the spear right into the largest lens on the machine’s snout. She could hear a sympathetic ‘ouch’ Erend’s voice whispered somewhere behind her.

The tip barely pierced the surface this time, bringing up the familiar override interface. The machine stopped dead in its tracks, twitching and trembling as the old programming fought with the incoming code. The metal plates on the machine’s neck bent and gave way to where the Corruptor’s core in Aloy's spear tasked its nannite swarm to bridge new relays and weave bypass connections. One or two pieces even popped off.

And before long, the process was over. The Charger entered its idle stance and ceased all movement, awaiting input from its new master.

“Wow.”

Aloy stood up, confirming through her Focus that this was the last machine in the immediate area. She turned to find Erend staring with an unmatchable grin from ear to ear. “Good morning to you, too,” she greeted him, putting the spear aside. “And before you ask, yes, it’s safe to come close to it now.” She then turned her attention to the body of the first Charger, mentally sorting through all the harvestable parts.

Erend made his way down the slope. “I’ve never even seen one of these this close. Well, not intact, anyway,” he corrected himself, remembering how he'd got his hammer stuck in something that also had piledrivers attached to the head. That didn't offer a long list of candidates.

The young Nora chuckled and whistled for her Strider to come over, then she delved into the mechanical carcass at her feet. “Well, here’s a chance to meet one closer. It’s yours,” she said.

“Right, because...” Erend’s brain finally caught up with the morning report. He turned sharp enough for the loose strap on his belt to slap him on the back. “Wait, what did you say?”

“We’ll be faster if we’re both riding. I’ve got mine,” Aloy said, her tone suspiciously innocent, and pointed to the Strider trotting down the hill, “and now, you get yours.” She finally managed to disconnect the blaze canister from the broken Charger and moved to replace the one on her mount’s back.

Erend stared at his new 'gift' as if waiting for it to comment on the situation. “Okay? And what am I supposed to do with it?”

“Ride it to Mainspring, what else?” Aloy retorted, as if he had just questioned the most obvious thing in the world.

“Ride?” Even that word sounded alien. “I’m comfortable with solid ground, thanks a lot. Machines hurt. Ground never hurt me. Except that time when I --” he abruptly stopped himself from trailing too far away. “Whatever. Ground’s safer.”

Aloy leaned against her Strider’s back with an exasperated sigh. “Come on, Erend. It’s not hard to learn.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You’re good at things,” he argued back.

“Well, and how do you know you won’t be good at it if you never try?” She herself has heard the very same words in the past and their ring brought a familiar face back to her. There he was again. Rost, in her mind, laughing at her.

The Oseram man opened his mouth to say something in return, but found he had nothing, so he clenched his jaw shut and scowled instead. “Did anyone ever ask you to stop making sense?”

For a second, it seemed his comment actually made her browse her memory. “Not recently, no.”

“Well, I’m probably about to do it in the nearest future.” Erend eyed the still metal beast with suspicion. He remembered how he and Ersa broke a fence when they were children, and how they had to herd back the geese that escaped through the hole. To say the birds refused to cooperate was a gross understatement. The memory still made him wince.

“It’s a machine, not an animal. It will only do what you tell it to do.”

At moments like this, he would swear that Focus of hers could read minds. He turned his gaze back to the mount. He had seen what a Charger’s horn can do with a solid tree trunk, and he’d heard what it can do to a man. And once again, he found himself not being a fan of images his head insisted on summoning for him.

While Aloy’s main focus seemed to be the dead machine she was dismantling, she kept one eye on Erend. He seemed to be in some sort of a very passionate but sadly silent argument with himself, judging from the constant shift in his expression. He was like a boy admiring his first bow, except this boy was just ever so slightly worried about that bow biting his head off. “Go ahead,“ she said. “First step is the worst.“

“First step towards it or first step when it actually starts moving?“

“You know what I mean.“ She cut off another piece of stronger wiring and set it aside. “Just do it. Or I'll tell your men and they'll never let you hear the end of it.“

If looks could kill, Erend would have at least given her a minor injury. He knew she had a tongue that could pierce solid steel if she wanted, but this, he considered a low blow. Mostly because it was true. “Okay,“ he growled and took a step towards the Charger. “How?“

“Put your hands on its back.”

Erend followed instruction, still eying the machine’s reaction, ready to spring away at the first sign of trouble. The mount’s synthetic muscle was oddly warm to the touch.

“And now just hop on.”

He half expected the Charger to just turn around and try to ram him. Or charge with him into the nearest tree. But it still stood there, quietly humming and absolutely ignoring the man clinging to its spine. Getting on top was about as difficult as climbing a fallen log.

“How is it?”

“Like a chair. Except weird and rounded.” So not really all that much like a chair. Chairs usually had the decency to not awkwardly shift their weight when one sat on them.

Aloy wiped her hands clean on the snow and moved to the rookie rider’s side, studying his posture. “Okay,” she nodded more to herself than to him and tapped his knee. “Move a bit forward. You want to brace against its shoulders.”

“Do I?” he questioned sarcastically and tried to scoot a few inches towards the machine’s head without angering it.

“Well, unless you want to end up on the ground as soon as it starts moving? Pretty much yes, you do.” Aloy shot him a cheeky smile. “Come on, you’re already up, don’t say you’re getting second thoughts--”

“Oh no.” His laugh was just a little bit nervous. “More like fourth or fifth thoughts, really.”

“Here,” the young Nora said before her companion could derail things further and pointed to the bright blue cable at the base of the Charger’s neck. “Hold onto these. One in each hand.”

“Uh huh.” The cables felt strange to the touch, and he would swear they made his palms tingle. “And now?”

She reached up and poked him in the back, making him lean forward. “Now just go.”

To Erend’s surprise, the Charger started obediently moving forward without further input. He stared at it as if it just told him all forges in Mainspring exploded and the exalted Sun-priest Bahavas said a dirty joke. “That’s... it, it just does that? That easy?”

“I told you so,” Aloy said nonchalantly. “It reacts to the way you move. You lean forward, it goes forward. You pull it back,” she said just as he made the machine stop in its tracks, “it stops.” He grinned at her, obviously happy with his progress. “Good,” she nodded approvingly and went to climb her Strider. “Now turn it around and bring it back up.”

She turned just in time to see Erend slide down the side of his mount with a brief string of curses escaping his lips. She couldn't exactly say he fell down, more like ‘got partially off in a very hurried and rather unplanned fashion’, but she still had to bite her lip to stifle a laugh. She directed her Strider towards him. “You said it’s like a chair. You fall from chairs, too?”

Erend replied with a lopsided shrug, trying not to fall all the way down. “Sometimes. But I at least tend to get a few drinks for my trouble before that happens,” he said, scowling at the Charger as if that were to blame. “How does this work, anyway?”

“I’m not sure,” Aloy admitted. “But I think it has something to do with the cables from the Corruptor core. Whenever I let go of them to shoot or do anything else, controlling it becomes a lot more difficult.” She reached for him and helped him regain balance.

“Difficult how?” he asked, aware that she had yet to let go of his shoulder.

“It tends to... turn in strange circles and stop at the worst possible angle.” The way her voice dropped in volume and gained in speed somewhere midway through the sentence made Erend think they may be a rather embarrassing story behind it. He made a mental note to try and get her to share it, smiling at the thought.

“Well,” she broke the silence, louder than necessary. “We should get started. The carcass is bound to attract scavengers sooner or later.” She retreated her hand and turn her mount around, aiming back up the slope. “Not to mention there was a Stormbird around last time I was here, so let’s try and not lose the Charger when you just got it.”

Erend just nodded and followed her to the camp.

They quickly packed up the furs and dressed up for the road. Dividing the packs between two machines, they could both comfortably ride. Well, Aloy could ride comfortably, Erend could spend the trip finding new reasons to dislike the concept of gravity.

But even through some of the downsides, he had to admit traveling this way had its benefits, as long as he could prevent any sudden and unwarranted changes in elevation on the machine’s part. The remaining distance to the gates of the Claim would have otherwise taken them at least twice as long. Even when both mounts kept a walking pace and the Charger had to sometimes compensate for very uneven weight distribution when steeper climbs found its rider hugging its neck, it was still faster.

Aloy watched with amusement as her companion grew confident enough about his capacity of not 'falling down from a moving chair' that he started to try and figure out the machinery. Obviously, even spending years with the Carja couldn't cure an Oseram from curiosity.

When they reached the great gate, the sun was still casting shadows on the western slopes.

Erend got off his Charger, feet a bit unsteady after the ride. “Whoa, this will take some getting used to,” he mumbled when he caught his balance on the machine’s snout.

“Don’t worry, it will pass,” Aloy replied reassuringly and hopped down on the ground.

“Anytime soon, I hope,” he growled and turned towards the gate. He took a few steps towards it, suddenly frowning.

“So, is anyone going to open the door for us, or not?” the Nora asked with raised eyebrows and came around where he stood.

“I’d hope so...” Erend muttered, looking for anyone to ask for entry. But there wasn’t a single living soul in sight. No guards on duty, no weapons aimed at potential trespassers and raiders.

Aloy leaned towards her companion. “Is this...?”

“... odd,” Erend answered right away without even waiting for the question. Neither of them took their eyes off the gate. “The station should be manned. Usually ten or twelve strong. Something’s not right.”

The whole place seemed deserted. Fresh snow all around lied undisturbed and the only thing to hear was wind playing with something loose on the other side.

The travelers exchanged a concerned glance and unanimously voted to reach for their weapons. There was still no response from behind the gate. Not even a sound that would betray a living presence. Aloy turned on her Focus, arrow nocked and ready on her bow.

“No activity,” she reflexively repeated the system status. “I can’t see anyone.”

Erend approached the gate to look closer, hoping that unlike his new mount, he won’t get stabbed in the eye for trying. He raised a hand to knock at the gate, but as soon as his fist landed on it, the heavy wood gave in under pressure and moved in its hinges.

The man took half a step back, confused. “The gate’s not sealed,” he told the huntress behind him. For a brief moment, he listened for any kind of reaction, but once again, there was none except for a dull echo.

Erend put both hands on the wooden frame and leaned his weight into it. It budged, but the bottom kept dragging. The creaking made it clear the snow on the other side hadn’t been cleared, either. The Oseram tried hitting the door with his shoulder instead, applying a bit more raw force. First hit failed. Second finally made it through and created opening just wide enough for them to pass through. But instead of going forward, Erend stumbled back, eyes wide and a half-strangled surprised yelp escaping from his throat.

Aloy ran forward, ready to fight, aiming her arrow through the gap as soon as she reached her companion.

Leaning against the gate from the other side was a freshly dug-out Deathbringer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I am aware giving Erend a ride that literally has a pair of chainsaws glued to the head is... odd. But he does look like a runaway from one of those Swedish music bands Travis Tate loved, so who else if not him.
> 
> Gameplay and story integration is an occasionally confusing nut to crack in this case. Machines are an interesting challenge, to say the least. Especially by how much riding one is probably NOT like riding a horse.  
> Note on Strider refueling: The exact function of blaze is a tad unclear, as it seems to differ from machine to machine. Some obviously harvest it in copious amounts and/or use it for a specific purpose, but others seem to have it as some sort of an extra fuel cell or backup energy storage akin to a camel hump, since blaze appears to be just highly flammable biomass. Striders don’t really have any other form of terraforming input than grazing, so assuming their job in the ecosystem is the same/similar to equines, they’re just a very picky lawnmower (which is still important, if you know a thing or two about big mammal ecology, but it’s just funnier if you say it this way). With the machines’ very high demand for self-sustenance, one would also naturally assume that those that can simply get their own fuel this way do so. So if the machine that’s supposed to graze and consume biomass doesn’t do it (which the tame one can’t be bothered to do), the canister would need to be replaced at some point.
> 
> The series tag has gone rather sadly quiet in these days, with everyone presumably gallivanting through the new Mass Effect game. I’ll try to add the next chapter soon. Thank you for all the kind support and I hope you enjoy.


	4. Breaking Boundaries (Oseram borderlands)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gates to the Claim lie broken and the place is not what Aloy and Erend expected or remembered.

_‘Skies heavy with ash and smoke, air leaving bitter taste with every drawn breath. Eerie, unnatural noise of turning gears followed by deafening thunder of ancient weapons spitting metal shards, shattering anything and anyone caught in their path. Screams and destruction echoing up from Meridian melded with the panic and adrenaline and roar of engines, intertwined to the point where nobody could tell which pained or rallying cry was theirs.’_

Erend wasn’t one to suffer from nightmares, and the battle of the Spire was no exception. And yet, when he blinked now, that fraction of a moment had him yet again standing on top of the Alight high above the Carja capital, fighting to survive.

His body reacted by heart, instinct and drill. All senses alert, hands finding a steady grip on the hammer, shoulders set and tense, ready to spring. This one seemed a little different than the Deathbringer they fought before – wrong colors emblazoned into the metal, lesser armor, fewer reinforced plates – but that was no reason to assume it was any less dangerous.

Except for one thing.

„Is it... it's dead. Right?“ he heard himself say, back in the present. It had to be dead. It would have moved to attack by now if it weren’t dead. But what if...

Aloy kept both her Focus and attention on the machine. Even though she did loosen up the bowstring, she still kept her bow primed and ready to shoot at the first sign of danger. The Deathbringer was compact and mostly intact. A few covering plates were bent in and one of its weapons dangled in the air, partially torn from its housing, but otherwise, it showed no heavy structural damage. “No,” Aloy mumbled to the man behind her. “Just inactive.” She took a few careful steps towards it.

“So what? Is it gonna start shooting or not?”

Aloy let go of the string, even if her other hand still held the arrow fast to the bow. “I don’t think so...”

“That’s not exactly reassuring,” Erend huffed, but stood his ground.

The Nora carefully stepped over one of the Deathbringer’s outstretched legs to move through the gate. The whole outpost was silent, buried under the blanket of snow, not a living soul in sight. She turned back towards the Faro machine.

There was a two-handed hammer stuck inside the Deathbringer’s carapace, probably caught and pulled in when the machine folded into itself. The handle was sticking out at an odd angle, pointing skywards like an unnaturally thin accusing finger. Whoever had been wielding it was nowhere to be found.

Pushing through the still mostly closed door, Erend made his way past the gate, his own weapon low but still at the ready. His shoulders kept awkwardly twitching, as he fought the urge to look around but every instinct he possessed screamed at him not to turn his back on the ancient weapon. “Can you... you know... Do you see anything? If you look around, I mean?” he asked.

“I’ll see what I can find,” Aloy answered, scanning the immediate area.

The hammer was not the only evidence of the battle that had taken place there.

The gate’s crossbar was broken, the hard wood bristled with splinters. Both sides of the door as well as the surrounding wall were full of holes. And in some places, she could just barely make out stains ominously darker than the surface.

The adjacent border camp, even though hidden under fresh snow, also spoke volumes of what it had witnessed. Two large tents on the eastern side were partially collapsed, as if something heavy flew right through them. Or perhaps someone. Equipment was haphazardly thrown around the place. The watchtower was completely destroyed, lying in a broken heap across the road.

Large piece of one tent was missing, but not torn. The cut was clean, obviously man-made. Aloy ran her hand through an oddly-textured patch of snow nearby and uncovered a set of frozen reddish brown blotches, as well as pieces of rags stained with the same color.

And finally, almost right under the watchtower’s original foundations, there was a telltale crater in the ground, obviously missing a large, deathbringer-shaped object.

“The Deathbringer brought down the tower when it woke,” Aloy finally cut the silence. “The border crew fought back, and at least a few got injured. Some of them... probably bad.” She didn’t want to speculate on their survival. There was no evidence or bodies left behind, but judging from the amount of blood and from the simple fact they were fighting a **Deathbringer** that caught them by surprise, it was safe to assume some of the wounds were severe. “When HADES... when the override signal activated, the Deathbringer just fell dormant. And it looks like the men gathered their wounded on some improvised stretcher and left.” Erend finally joined her in the camp, even though he still stubbornly kept the Faro machine in sight. She looked at him. This was his home, not hers. “I could track them, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

It took the Oseram man a while to figure out she deferred decision to him. Running a hand through his hair, he thought about their options for a moment. “There’s a narrow pass a few miles up the road. Easily defensible. Chances are, whoever’s left of the gate party would fall back there,” he said, eying the northern horizon. “We used it a lot during the Red Raids.”

“Let’s hope we find someone there now,” Aloy agreed solemnly. She whistled for their mounts and hopped onto the Strider’s back without waiting for the machine to stop.

 _‘How many places were there like this one?’_ she wondered. Meridian had been ready for war, but most people everywhere else were just living out their daily lives and routines, only to have a thousand-year-old metal monstrosity suddenly burst from the ground.

Aloy snapped back to present, realizing she hadn’t heard a single word from what Erend just said. “Wait, what?”

The Oseram man shot her a questioning glance, but didn’t press the subject. “I said you can leave me behind if you want to ride faster,” he repeated instead, waving a hand at the Charger under him. “I’ll catch up at some point.”

“No,” Aloy answered, shaking her head. “You know the terrain. Speed wouldn’t help, anyway. No use charging head-first into trouble.” She swallowed the need to reassure him she wouldn’t leave him behind. Not like this, in the middle of nowhere, with a Deathbringer right behind his back. “Let’s go.”

Both mounts picked up the pace somewhere between fast walk and trot, kicking up undisturbed snow. Aloy checked the first few yards, then turned her Focus down back to its idle interface. “We’re on the right track,” she said. “It’s a few days old, but still traceable.”

There was no answer. But she could clearly hear the Charger’s metal hooves beat at the ground just half a step behind her own machine. She turned, maybe a bit faster than necessary, and found Erend frowning at nothing in particular somewhere in the empty space between the Charger’s horns.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked.

“What if... Those things could be anywhere, right? I mean, this was a military camp and-- But what if...”

“What if some woke in the middle of a village,” Aloy finished for him. Her voice fell with every uttered word. “I’m sure some of them did.” She never said it out loud before, but the thought had been present somewhere in the back of her mind ever since she’d seen the Spire start transmitting. The termination protocol HADES had activated was only in operation for a short period of time, but she could bet that out here and in many other places, that short time must had seemed like eternity. Or alternatively, it resulted in a very short and harsh end. She bit on her cheek, trying to fight back the sticky fingers of guilt grasping at her guts.

Aloy tried to hide it, but Erend did catch a brief flash of pain in her face. It made his stomach turn and kick him in the ribs. “I’m sorry, I just--” He regretted asking in the first place, but there was nothing he could do to take it back now. He reached out as far as he felt he could without falling off the Charger and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You did what you could.”

He was relieved to find her ever so slightly leaning into him and giving him a small smile, although the sadness didn’t exactly go away. “We all did,” she told him.

They were mostly silent the rest of the way, with Aloy occasionally checking with her Focus to confirm the trail they followed went along the road they were on.

It took roughly half an hour before Erend finally pointed at a natural rocky shelter carved into a mountainside. “There it is,” he said.

He didn’t exaggerate about the pass being defensible. Two mountain ranges were leaning together to the point of almost touching, there were just a few dozen feet between them. While the top was obviously raw from continuous erosion, the bottom looked almost clean, going straight through the range. As if there was a passage here long ago that someone drilled right through the rock.

A makeshift palisade was raised at the narrowest point. Most of the wood and material looked a few years old and built to last, but there were fresh patches and improvised fixes all over the place, covering the necessary parts to get the camp running again. Some non-essential fortifications were left in disrepair. She could see a few spots where Oseram cannons used to be, but none were in their place anymore.

At first, she wondered why the main border gate wasn’t built here in the first place. But before she could ask Erend about it, another Oseram provided her an answer from within her memories. _‘Always have a backup plan.’_ She chased away Dervahl’s face from her mind.

“And someone’s home.”

Even an untrained eye could pick up sudden movement that appeared in the makeshift camp, spurred into action by the intruding presence.

A set of arrows landed just a few feet away from them in an obvious warning. One misaimed (or perhaps well-aimed) projectile ricocheted off the Charger’s horn, turning the machine’s lens immediately yellow in alert.

“Hey!” Erend’s dismounting technique admittedly still could benefit from some training in the elegance department. He jumped in front of both the machines, arms outstretched as if the gesture could make their attackers rethink their unfriendly ways. He heard his name hissed from behind him, but Aloy made no further attempt to stop him. “Stop shooting, will you?! We’re friendlies!” He sounded more than a trifle offended, and the Nora honestly couldn’t tell if it was because he was taken for a target or because whoever handled the bow was sloppy enough to miss.

No further arrows came flying, at least. Instead, someone decided it was safe to speak. “What do you want!” It wasn’t a question. “This is the Claim, you have no business here!”

Erend knew that voice. And the voice’s owner knew him just as well.

“You up there blind or just damn stupid?” he shouted back. True, days on the road meant he could use more than a decent shave. _‘Half a man and most of a boar’_ , his sister used to call it. But it couldn’t have been all **that** bad.

There was a moment’s pause. Then the voice spoke up again. “... Erend?”

“Damn straight,” the man agreed with the voice in a slightly less annoyed tone. Confident he wouldn’t get shot anymore, Erend turned back to his Nora companion. He just caught her reluctantly lowering the bow. She was frowning, just like always when trying to concentrate, and he knew the telltale glimmer of light at her temple meant her Focus is at work, probably marking any potential threats in the area.

“Four of them,” she confirmed his suspicion immediately after and jumped off to the ground, joining him.

“Nowhere near enough,” he hissed under his breath, more to himself than to her.

It took longer than it really should have, when a lone Oseram man finally left the palisade. Broadbacked like most of his people, he was a bit shorter than Erend, even though he still had Aloy beat in height. Older than both of them, definitely more than thirty winters at his belt. His movement was a bit unsteady, noticeably favoring one side. When he got closer, the Nora saw a fresh bandage right above his left knee.

“Kellam,” Erend nodded to greet the newcomer. “This is Aloy.”

“What the hell’s going on,” the man growled without as much as a greeting.

“Nice to see you, too.” Erend didn’t flinch or sound surprised.

“You know where to stick your damn pleasantries.” The man’s eyes were sunken and dead. An image of a wounded fox immediately jumped in Aloy’s mind. Yowling, angry, baring its teeth at anything that moves, eager to spring, to bite, to hurt, but too desperate to think straight. And essentially powerless.

Erend’s gesture was half a shrug, half putting hands up in an attempt to placate then man in front of them. “Look, we have business in Mainspring. All we want is to get on our way. Maybe not get shot, if that’s not asking too much.”

The Oseram identified as ‘Kellam’ laughed with a humorless bark. “Why the hell would I care where Erend Sunblood wants to go or if he gets shot getting there.”

“We could help you,” said the Nora. Kellam stood close enough for her to feel the heat he radiated. She realized he had to be running a fever.

The injured Oseram went right over Aloy’s head, stabbing his finger into Erend’s chest. “Six men I sent ahead to Mainspring to bring help. We’ve been stuck here four days, unable to leave. So unless you want to tell me you got a damn miracle up your--” He probably realized he was close to shouting and reset his voice back to an angry growl. “You can pack up that girl and just go crawl back to your Carja trash.”

The Vanguardsman could feel himself instinctively bristling at the dismissal. He took a sharp breath and opened his mouth to speak.

Suddenly, something moved right in front of him. “This ‘girl’ and the ‘Carja trash’ just saved all your lives not even a week ago,” Aloy took a decisive step forward, staring the other man right in the eye.

Erend shifted back on his heels, biting back the smirk that started making its way into his expression, once again positive she **could** , in fact, read minds.

Kellam suddenly had a hard time searching for words, and before he could even attempt to say something in retaliation, Aloy cut him short again.

“I get it. You went through a nightmare.” The the spark of anger dulled somewhat, replaced by conviction. “But so did we. And literally **everyone** else. Whether you like it or not, we're the first and only help that came your way in days. And you can be damn sure we’re the best help you’ll get.”

Erend decided to keep his mouth shut. Whatever doubts the Nora had, whatever weakness she’d let him see earlier was gone, pushed back and replaced by cold resolve that hit like the toughest steel.

“So just move your ass out of the way and let us through. We may even find your missing scouts if we’re lucky. Maybe they’ll have better manners. They sure can’t be worse.”

Kellam stared back, and for a while, both travelers honestly expected him to start an argument. But in the end, the man had just waved his arm and let them go, hobbling back to the shelter, muttering something about women and Erend’s taste in company.

Both travelers returned to their mounts and climbed back on. When they passed the small fire where the four scowling men huddled for warmth, Alloy just dropped a little fur-covered supply satchel tied with metal wire into the snow, not giving them as much as a word.

A few minutes later, two machine riders – one seasoned, one still mildly wobbling – were found climbing the slopes heading for the mountain pass that would lead them deeper into the Oseram land, leaving the wider trading route behind.

Aloy finally let out an exasperated sigh just as she was sure they were out of earshot. “Fine, out with it.”

“Out with what?” Erend asked, looking mildly confused.

“You want to say something. Go ahead,” she said, unwilling to let him deflect the question.

“It’s nothing. Really.”

“If you want to tell me I was too harsh--”

The man immediately shook his head. “Nah. He’ll live. Trust me.”

“So what is it?” the Nora insisted.

There was a pause before he replied, as if he was making sure he put together the right words. “You’re gonna be trouble when we get to Mainspring, that’s all,” he said sheepishly, eyes trained dead ahead.

At first, Aloy was about to protest, to defend herself, maybe even argue, but she realized he sounded... amused by the thought, not annoyed. There was a hint of mischief ghosting his expression. She could swear part of him was looking forward to it. She shot him an inquisitive look, hoping to decipher something more from his face. He decided not to elaborate in any way.

Aloy found herself regretting she kept her confrontational tone. He didn’t seem to be offended, but she still felt a small twitch of guilt at the back of her chest for not dropping her poison back at Kellam’s camp. “Good kind of trouble, I hope?” she asked, softer this time.

 _‘You’re always good kind of trouble.’_ Erend bit on his tongue and for a brief moment, he was almost convinced he had said it out loud. He just smiled in return, hoping that conveyed the answer better than mangled words.

He heard her chuckle before she turned back around towards the winding path ahead. Churning gears and quiet buzz of their machine mounts became the only sound.

As they climbed the mountain path, more and more of the Claim opened up to view. There was something calming about the way the afternoon Sun caressed the tallest mountain faces. Erend offered names to whatever vista she asked about as they came across it, along with anecdotes and thoughts to her further questions. The wind was just cool enough to feel refreshing and Aloy found herself once more enjoying the journey.

Until they found a dead Watcher pinned to the ground with a spear.

“You reckon the missing scouting party did that?” Aloy asked, pointing to the spear.

Erend got off his Charger and pulled the weapon from the corpse. When it came loose, it became apparent it wasn’t a spear, but rather a cracked handle from a larger weapon, its telltale handiwork making the answer obvious. “Yeah, this is Oseram work,” the man confirmed. “But this isn’t,” he frowned and poked at the dead Watcher with his boot.

“What do you mean?”

Erend looked back at her over his shoulder. “If there’s one thing you can count on in an Oseram, it’s that we never – ever – leave scrap behind. This one,” he nodded towards the carcass at his feet, “is untouched.”

“So they were in a hurry?” Aloy guessed.

“Or they still are,” Erend nodded grimly. “They didn’t come back for it, either.”

The Nora knew what he was getting at. She dismounted her Strider, bow in hand and spear ready in the holster on her back. It would be better to leave the machines behind for now before they confirm the road ahead to be safe. Loaded with supplies, they would do more harm than well in a fight. And she knew first-hand how annoyingly long a Charger’s sensor range could be.

Erend tossed the broken haft aside, his own hammer and bow ready at hand and holstered on the back, respectively. “See anything?”

“The scouts definitely came through here,” Aloy answered, crouched above the path, studying some tracks only her Focus could pick up. “One of them was bleeding. New wound or opened one, I can’t tell.”

They made their way down into the plateau ahead. “There was a camp here last time I passed through,” Erend pointed out. “At least I’m fairly sure there was,” He remembered that trip better than he’d appreciated or cared to admit.

“There still is.” Aloy nodded to a broken pot discarded without care at one of the standing rocks. “What’s left of it, anyway.” She also noticed the ground was strangely textured. There were ridges and cuts, about an inch or so deep, crisscrossing the ground as far as she could see. As if a crazed farmer ran amok here and tried to plow a field into a mountainside.

“Aloy,” Erend called out suddenly, pointing to a tangled mess of cables and wiring lying in a heap a few dozen feet ahead. “There.”

There was a twisted pile of trademark white metalwork and black synthetic muscle, clearly marking a destroyed machine. It was hard to tell the exact shape, as the shell was bent and twisted by an explosion, possibly from an Oseram pellet. Its head was missing, but they could clearly make out the razor sharp claws that looked worse than that of a Rockbreaker, and the dried blood that caught on them. Aloy had never seen anything like that before. When she turned on her Focus, it confirmed her initial suspicion: Unknown machine. Cauldron symbol next to its tag didn’t match any on her list.

“Looks like the scouts ran straight into--”

Erend, a few steps ahead, drew a sharp breath and flinched just as she was about to finish the thought. And some two seconds later, it hit her, too. The unmistakeable stench of rotting flesh. Aloy picked at the wind, nodding towards the western side of the pass.

They made their way up the small hill, almost slowing to the crawl with each new piece of evidence they found. There was no doubt about it; this is where the missing scout party had ended. The stretcher they had carried was shattered, hanging from a sharp rock like a makeshift flag. Weapon splinters were everywhere. When they found the first severed limb, Aloy knew she didn’t have to go any further.

Erend took the few extra steps to clear the ridge and the Nora knew what he would say as soon as she saw his shoulders slump. “They’re all here. All six.” He only took as long as was necessary to count them, but still added one observation. “None of them died up here though.”

“No,” Aloy agreed. The Oseram returned back down just as she turned her Focus back on. “There’s... drag marks all over the place. A machine did this, but why? What kind of a machine has use for... whatever that is?”

She didn’t expect Erend to know, but when she looked back up at him barely a second later, she caught him just as his halfhearted shrug froze mid-movement and eyes went wide in a panicked stare. He reacted faster than she did, grabbing her by the waist and spinning her around, to face what he saw.

Almost vertically aligned with the rock above them was a giant quadruped machine. It had massive shoulders, a broad chest and the same sharp claws Aloy had found on the carcass just moments before. Its claws were dug into the rock, holding it in place. It was deathly still.

The machine’s head was intact this time. Broad rounded skull narrowed into a stocky muzzle bristling with sharp metal teeth. Its flat forehead housed six small lenses along the sides, and one central large one in the middle of the snout. All seven were trained right at them, glaring angry crimson.

Both companions turned as one and started back down the hill, running for the open space. The machine jumped right after them, and for a brief moment, Erend’s mind sent him a lovely image of what would happen had the beast successfully boxed them in against the cliff face. “What is that?!”

“No idea!” was the answer.

They turned at the end of the path. There was no sense outrunning their enemy, they could feel the ground shaking as it thundered right after them. Two arrows nocked in two bows in a few seconds notice, trained dead straight into the head of the charging metal creature. One of them harmlessly broke on the metal skull. The other managed to slightly crack the main lens with a dull pang, but left no damage worth mentioning. Two more had the same effect. This monster was built to last. Its hull could give even a Deathbringer a run for its shards.

Aloy heard a whispered curse to her right as Erend dropped the bow and grabbed the hammer. She had to admit his instinct was right. This wouldn’t be a fight for careful sniping. “Any ideas?” she heard him bark as he readied himself for the approaching machine.

Stopping a few feet ahead of them, the beast reared up on its sturdy hind legs. Standing upright, it was taller than a Bellowback. Heavy plating on its chest was held together by a strong weave of synthetic muscle. And just under it, metallic ribs held a more delicate ordnance in a protective cage.

“Chillwater sack, on its belly!” yelled the Nora.

The machine then crashed back into the ground, stirring up a shockwave that sent rocks tumbling down and had both travelers grasping for balance. They had little time to regain their footing as the massive armored jaw opened with a sharp, deafening roar. A spout located where an animal’s tongue would have been sent forward a pressurized jet of chillwater mist.

Aloy and Erend ducked for cover, but succeeded just in part. The chillwater bit into their armor. Exposed skin burned with the sudden cold and muscles in freezing limbs refused to react.

The beast didn’t give them a chance to recuperate. Rocking back on its legs to gain momentum, it charged forward like a Trampler, lunging at them both with its sharpened claws.

Aloy wanted to instinctively shout a warning, but the chilly mist bit into her throat and sent her gasping. She managed to avoid the main blow, but one of the massive paws caught on her bow and sent it flying, almost ripping her arm off at the shoulder.

Erend caught one hit square on the hip. His armor held, even though few metal rings on its padding gave up, but the force of the attack swept the legs from under him, sending him hard on the frozen ground. He barely had time to turn right side up when the beast closed the distance between them. With a practiced snap of the wrist, he brought the crowbar hilt of his weapon crashing hard against the metallic snout. Two smaller lenses at the side of the machine’s face shattered with the blow, giving the Oseram man enough space to get himself up. Wasting no time, he brought the blunt end of the hammer against one of its leg joints.

“Any more ideas?” he shouted at his companion and backed away, as the angry machine turned its attention fully towards him.

Aloy turned her Focus back on, scanning the creature.

A power cell and core hidden in its skull were out of the question, encased in metal over an inch thick. An antenna array ran along its spine, welded in too tight to be of any use. And deep within its breast, the Focus picked up the machine’s heart. A simple enough pump to drive chillwater up one way and blaze down the other.

Aloy’s mind snapped. Blaze. There had to be... “Erend! Go for its spine, right at the head!” she barked at the Oseram. She’d missed it the first time, hidden under another thick layer of protective armor, but now her Focus clearly marked a blaze container nested inside the machine’s short, thick neck.

Erend didn’t respond, but as his next hit connected with the side of the machine’s head instead of going for the limbs like he had thus far, she knew he’d heard her. But despite the solid force behind the swing, the tempered steel didn’t even leave a dent. The machine snapped back angrily, teeth clanking against the hilt of the weapon the man managed to put in the way at the last possible second.

Aloy immediately saw an opening. Diving under at the crazed metal beast, she drove her spear upwards, aiming between the metal ribbing on its stomach, but the machine took half a step back, trapping the weapon between its ribs. There was a horrifying screech as the speartip ground against the metal. The huntress nimbly twisted the haft and, putting all her weight into the final thrust, pushed it in. As soon as she felt the softer synthetic tissue giving in, she leaped back, cursing as her weapon caught inside the machine’s body. She had no choice but to let the spear go, but her attack was still a success. The chillwater sack burst open, spilling its contents on the ground.

The beast pawed at her in retaliation with one of its bladed limbs, but it found nothing but air. Every move it made was now accompanied by moans of chilled and frozen components straining to keep its mass operational.

Before it could react or calculate another attack, another blow to the back of the head sent it reeling. It flexed its jaws in vain, computing its way through a mass of critical errors and unresponsive relays. It could see both its targets clearly, but the body could only move in one direction. The beast assessed the threat.

Leaping as fast as the brittle metal allowed, the machine jumped at Aloy, forcing her to quickly dive to the ground and roll out of the way of the massive claws. The Nora’s mind was racing, looking for a solution. One of her weapons was useless in the grass several feet away, the other still sticking from the machine’s side. Everything else she had at hand was not suitable for close combat and would present more danger to her and Erend than their opponent. And the beast certainly wasn’t about to let her sit and figure this out in peace.

She kicked both her feet up against the advancing monster, giving herself a brief window of opportunity to roll further away while it coped with the blow. Her kick landed straight on its jaw, closing it shut. One of its hinges had to bend under the pressure, getting it stuck in position.

Normally, Aloy would need to use the time to get away, grab for her weapons and put some safe distance between her and the angry robot. But she wasn’t fighting alone this time.

Coming from the machine’s blind spot, Erend finally managed to crack the hammer down at the side of its neck. The heavy metal plate there bent awkwardly, then it sprang back and went flying, revealing a little bit of the blaze compartment underneath.

Aloy wasted no time and got back on her feet. This was the best chance they would get. Instead of going for her bow, she took a blaze-covered arrow, striking the tip against the beast’s skull to ignite it, and jammed it as deep as she could into the artificial body’s open wound. There was a faint sound of cracking glass followed by a wheezing hiss and the flames licking the tip of the arrow started to expand across the canister’s surface.

The Nora turned on her heel and grabbed the man at her side by the collar, pushing him forward. “Run, run, run!” she managed to grind through clenched teeth.

They felt the explosion long before either of them registered the sound. A wave of heat and raw force hit them in the back, making them instinctively dive for cover. Aloy could just barely hear a choked-up laugh escaping her throat at the sense of deja-vu before noise from the explosion ripped everything else away. She felt Erend moving to cover her head.

The machine let out a terrifying howl as the blaze fueled fire broke into its skull, turning it into a macabre ornamental lamp. The stench of burning grease, wiring and plastic stung in the nostrils. The robot shook its head violently as if the fire inside it could be dropped, but its movement was quickly becoming glitchy and erratic. The spasms died out into twitches until finally, its front legs gave up and the whole construct collapsed snout-first in a pile of broken machinery.

The main lens flickered, glass bursting from the heat. Its red light faded.

The beast was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how this chapter got this long. It feels like I just sneezed at the keyboard and there it was (editing it though...), so my guess on the wordcount grossly underestimated the real number. Whatever caused that, I hope it holds up.
> 
> I pondered a while whether to go so far as to add a mad!Hephaestus design, but eh, I’m about to break this sandbox more than a wayward mecha-toy can do. I also may have been itching for a proper action scene. Thus, bear-o-tron. Or eventually, Icemaw.
> 
> Next up: heart of the Claim and nurture versus nature. And no, Sunblood is not a name.


	5. Common Path (The Claim)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving on from the dead unknown machine, Aloy & Erend finally reach Mainspring.

By the time Aloy’s ears finally stopped ringing, it already seemed like the echo from the explosion would keep rolling through the mountain peaks forever. She felt her blood pulse against her skull and sharp bite of the cold wind with every breath she took. But she also tasted the sheer thrill of the hunt that made her feel alive. Slowly, reluctantly, the adrenal rush began to ebb away. It was always like waking up in the middle of a dream, as the mind slowly widened its focus past the fight and the body let go of instinct and began adding conscious thought to its movement. But in the first second or two, everything always felt so difficult to untangle. A heartbeat was thundering against her ribcage, and she couldn’t honestly tell if it was hers.

Her ears distantly registered a faint hum of the feasting flames and quiet ting of heated metal. Then, the shadow above her lifted as Erend slowly moved back up. She followed his example, careful not to drag chill-bitten skin on the ground more than necessary. They both looked over one another, checking for injuries or signs of trouble. Erend seemed a bit startled at first before Aloy realized she had been grinning like a maniac and tried to put on a more reasonable expression. When they both came to slowly accept the danger had passed, the Nora allowed herself a relieved chuckle, letting her forehead drop against the man’s shoulder. For a moment, they both just sat on the trampled ground, catching their breath, savoring being alive.

“That... sure happens a lot around you,” the redhead heard Erend huff and turned to face him. The Oseram nodded towards the scorched mass of machinery. “You know. Fire. General mayhem. That.”

She grinned again, more subtly this time. “Well, I could say the same, you know. I remember you being there the last time, too.”

“Oh, so outrunning explosions is **not** an everyday thing for you?”

Aloy couldn’t tell if he feigned the disbelief, but it sure sounded genuine even through the teasing. “Well, I have to save something for special occasions, right?” she shrugged as her companion scrambled to his feet.  
“Wow. Special, huh? Other guys don’t know what they’re missing out on.”

The Nora chuckled and took the hand he offered to pull herself back up. She whistled for their mounts, confident there are no more monsters lurking about, and went to retrieve her bow. The sound of metal hooves filled the air, as the cargo-packed Strider galloped onto the small plateau, its Charger colleague in tow. Both machines stopped at Aloy’s side, waiting for their next command. But before she could move on to sort out her gear, Aloy noticed something odd about the way Erend was holding himself. “Hey, are you alright?” she asked,  nodding to the arm he held close to his side.

Erend let out a noncommittal growl. “Yeah, uh... I just landed on a rock when that thing knocked me over.” By the sound of it, he was way more embarrassed than injured. “It’s nothing serious, just gonna bite a few days.” He shrugged and waved his hand in her direction, revealing a dark red line staining the torn leather gauntlet. It went from his outer two fingers along the palm and down about an inch below the wrist.

Aloy snatched his hand mid-motion to check the cut, ignoring the swallowed halfhearted protest. It had some ragged edges but didn’t go deep, and while it probably stung a lot, the blood made it look a lot worse for the wear. But as Rost used to say: _‘There’s no such thing as small wound. If you favor your leg or arm when you’re next fighting for your life, you are sure to lose it.’_ The Nora took the medicine pouch from her belt. “Here,” she handed Erend a fistful of redberries and salvebrush leaves.

“It’s fine, I got mine, don’t worry about it,” the man gestured to the packs at the Charger’s back.

Aloy shrugged. “Good, so you can share them with me next time.” She then reached for his hand to force the medicine in his palm.

Erend let out a resigned sigh. “Yes, ma’am,” he chuckled and obediently took the healing herbs, rubbing some into the wound and chewing on the rest.

In the meantime, his companion moved on to solve her next problem. She took one of the chillwater pellets from her pack and carefully cracked the seal open. Then she spilled the contents over the torso of the still burning metallic carcass. The flames gave out with a loud hiss and the sharply cooled metal moaned in protest. A cloud of thick greyish steam rose from the body as the chillwater evaporated on impact. It wasn’t the best method for dousing a fire, but it was efficient enough to allow Aloy to untangle her spear from the beast’s synthetic innards.

Erend joined her over the machine, tugging in last strands of an improvised bandage. He shook his head, looking the metal monstrosity over. “What the hell was that thing?”

Aloy wondered if he simply forgot he’d already asked that question or if he thought she would have figured it out inbetween dodging the giant claws and avoiding frostbite. “A machine I haven’t seen before,” she opted for stating the obvious.

He gave her a doubting glance, as if he expected her to say she was joking. “Okay, that’s... weird,” he replied when no such assurance came.

“You know it around here,” the Nora said. “Are there any places where something like this could have been hiding? Where do local machines usually come from?”

“No idea. The pass was clear when I was here some four months ago.” A cracked echo shell landed at Erend’s feet, as the redhead started rummaging through the parts of the wreckage that were no longer burning.

Aloy paused her digging for a short bit, looking at nothing in particular in the distance. “Well, there could always be a Cauldron somewhere nearby.”

There was a brief pause as Erend silently went through his inner ‘Aloy-to-common-speech’ dictionary. “Cauldron... like one of those places that build machines?”

“Yes. It’s usually just a small metal door that looks a bit like the --” She stopped herself when she realized the Oseram never was to Maker’s End or the All-Mother mountain. “Door that’s shaped like an arrow. The actual Cauldrons are deep underground, so they’re easy to miss,” she said as she continued her task, prying off an armor piece to get to the shock-absorbent lining underneath.

Erend leaned against his hammer, thinking. “Well, I’ve heard people talk about some long-lost ancient ruin deeper in the ridge,” he said, browsing his memories. “But I never heard it being more than just a story,” he added when he noticed her surprised look. “I mean, my old man heard it from his grandfather. Or he said he did, anyway. There was... how did it go... a cavern wrapped in cables leading to a heart as bright as the fires in the Great Forge.”

Aloy nodded. “That sounds like the right place. Do you know where it is?”

“I don’t know the entrance,” Erend replied. “Not sure anyone does. I know that every now and again, kids or idiots with too much free time on their hands go out and try finding it, but I haven’t heard of anyone being lucky. And trust me, if an Oseram had found it, he’d never stop bragging about it.”

Aloy wiped her hands clean and stood back up, gathering all items she retrieved from the body. “It could have been buried,” she said in a slightly absent tone that made unclear whether she’s still talking to her companion or just thinking out loud. “Lots of ground moved about when the Faro machines woke up as HADES summoned them. Maybe that uncovered the entrance.”

“Your guess is way better than mine,” Erend shrugged. “Are you planning to go and look for it?”

Aloy took her time with the answer, pondering her options. The Cauldron sounded tempting. Especially since it posed a threat to the area. But the ruins around Mainspring were a sure find, while this would probably require quite a bit of searching.

In the end, it boiled down to letting a single question decide. “Would you go with me?”

It wasn’t the question she’d wanted to ask.

Erend looked away for a moment, reluctant. “I... if it were up to me, I’d go right away. I mean, we gained a day, maybe two with the whole riding thing, but...” he said, rubbing the back of his head in a somewhat apologetic manner, “I can’t just leave them out here like this.” He nodded towards the overpass, where the dead machine had made its macabre lair. “Someone has to let Mainspring know. Send a party to... collect them or something. Kellam’s an ass, but even he wouldn’t deserve to be left rotting in the sun like this, let alone his men.”

Aloy bit her lip. “Oh. Right.” She turned on her Focus and marked the general area in its navigational system as a point of interest.

Erend watched her as she made strange gestures at thin air that would make anyone else seem like they’ve taken a leave of their senses. He had wondered before what kind of world does one gleam through the ancient device that it could captivate their entire focus in such a way. She always seemed to forget that anything else exists. “So... I guess this is it?” he said after a moment, breaking long silence hanging between them.

“Hm?” she raised her eyebrows in question, still focused on something invisible about ten inches in front of her. She then waved at it dismissively and turned her attention back to the Oseram. “Wait... what?” she asked as if she only just now caught up with the sound of a few seconds ago.

“I mean, we’re splitting, right?” the man replied, trying to clarify. He attempted to push all hints of disappointment from his voice, but he wasn’t entirely sure he succeeded.

“No? Why, were you looking forward to running off without me?” she teased him, turning her Focus off.

Erend blinked, confused. “But I thought --”

Aloy shook her head. “No, you’re right. The Cauldron can wait.” She approached her Strider and hopped on its back. “Lets go make sure your people get taken care of, first.” Then she smiled, as she remembered something. “Besides, you still owe me that tour around a city.”

Erend almost stopped himself perfectly still midway through climbing on his Charger. His mind automatically went through all the smalltalk of the last three days and found naught. “... I do?”

“Yes, you promised to show me around. You know, back when we first met?”

The man let out an amused huff. “That was Meridian. I was talking about Meridian.”

“Well, it’s **a** city, so it counts. And you never showed me around that one, either.” Then again, she knew the Carja metropolis like the back of her hand now.

Erend carefully turned the words around in his head, examining them like a new piece of machinery, before a small smile tugged at his lips. “I guess I’d better make up for it, huh?”

“You bet.” Aloy offered a hand to help him pull himself up on the metal beast.

“So, ready to go?” He caught himself on the Charger’s neck before he could fall over as the machine shuffled under him, regaining its optimal balance.

“Sure. Lead the way.”

They bid their machines to their regular traveling speed, leaving the battle-scared mountainside behind. For a while, the air was again filled with nothing but the steady beat of metal hooves and low whisper of wind along the frozen ground. The small path they followed was well-worn, the kind formed more from elements than constant use. Machines walked it equally often as men, and sometimes, the mounts would need to step over a metal carcass sticking from the ground, picked clean by scavengers of both kinds.

There was no long talk to be had, only a few quips here and there. But the silence was comfortable and both travelers were starting to find a sense of familiarity about it, so neither protested.

The Sun crawled ever closer to the western peaks, making Aloy rise up on her mount, trying to scout around. Days end abruptly when mountains are involved. She wondered what the chances were they’d have to spend another night in a snowed-in gully. She wasn’t too bothered by the prospect; there were definitely worse things to fall asleep to than a small campfire, soft whirs of allied machines and quiet conversation about a world a thousand years dead. “How long to Mainspring?” she finally asked when they stopped at a crossroads marker.

“We’ll be there before dark,” Erend retorted. After a bit of thought, he added: “Well, unless something tries to eat us or shoot us again. Except...” He looked from one path to the other, then scowled at the marker as if he’d seen it for the first time.

Aloy brought her Strider next to him, studying his expression. “What is it?”

“Just thinking which way to go.”

The Nora raised a questioning eyebrow.

“I mean, not that we’re lost or anything,” Erend added quickly when he saw the face she made. “But the main trade gate is probably a bad idea. People are bound to notice these,” his fingers tapped the silvery shell of the Charger under him.

He was right. But as far as options were concerned, she was ready to take a bunch of curious Oseram over a pack of Scrappers or Glinthawks looking for the next thing to pick clean.  “Well, do we have a choice?”

“Kinda. If we turn west and follow the mountains, we’ll avoid the biggest hassle,” he said. “Closer to the house from there. We’ll still have to shoo away some curious louts, but nowhere near as many.”

 “House?” she asked. She hadn’t really thought about place to stay in Mainspring.  There was always some nook in the outskirts to rest in, if the worst came to pass.

“Yeah? My s-- My clan’s, I mean. Or... mine now, I guess. Good place to stay,” Erend shrugged, then added as an afterthought: “Pretty quiet there, too.”

Aloy’s brow twitched in confusion. “What?”

“Eh, you’ll see.”

“But --”

“Just trust me, quiet’s a good thing,” the Oseram said with what seemed to her like a suspiciously gleeful smirk.

It wasn’t until the first signs of dusk when they reached the last hill peak on their journey and she suddenly knew what that remark was all about.

She thought she was ready for the Oseram. She’d been to Pitchcliff and Free Heap and spent many evenings with Erend or Petra, she’d met Oseram merchants and tinkers and Kellam the ill-tempered border guard. But none of that prepared her for this. Just the sounds alone were overwhelming. Clanking of metal, dull beat of sledgehammers, hiss of a hundred flames and endless white noise of arguments, excited chatter, haggling and bickering, all the sound piled up in a single place, echoing from the pan below through the surrounding rocky slopes. Even a couple hundred meters away, it was deafening.

She remembered how overwhelming it felt to first set foot in Meridian. How loud everything appeared to be, how the sounds somehow managed to shout over and drown out the thoughts in her own head. But compared to this? It felt as abandoned and quiet as the Grave-Hoard.

Erend watched her with mix of sympathy and amusement. “Told you quiet’s a good thing. Just wait till we get to Mainspring.”

Aloy tried to look over and map all of the settlement, feeling a strange mix of disbelief and curiosity. It took a few seconds for her to register what her companion just said. When she did, her eyes widened even more. “Wait, you mean this isn’t --?”

The Oseram shook his head. “That’s Coilwatch. Mainspring starts a bit further in.” When he saw her expression, he decided to elaborate. “It started as a small-time scavenging settlement. But as Mainspring grew, forgeworkers wanted to settle closer to the source. So... this mess happened.”

“Mess is… one way to put it,” the redhead muttered more to herself than to the man at her side, torn between fighting back the instinct that told her to turn around and find a less crowded way and digging into the new experience.

Erend carefully slid down from his Charger. “Call it the path of least resistance. We don’t have to weave through half a city to -- Ow! Damn, how did you make me agree to this…”

Aloy winced in sympathy. Although it was a distant memory at best, she still remembered how sore it felt after her first few rides. Exhilarating as it was to be able to gallop fast enough to race the wind, human body insisted on making it known that this was, in fact, not its intended mode of transportation. “Don’t worry, it gets better as you get used to it.”

“When?”

“After about three hundred miles…” Seeing his mortified expression, she managed to keep a straight face for grand total of two seconds before caving in. “Just kidding, give it a day or two.” She gave him a reassuring pat on the back and when the man shot her a look that screamed suspicion, she quickly added: “Cross my heart.”

Erend growled something about stupid soft spots she didn’t entirely understand and, rubbing some feeling back in his sore sides, gestured towards the settlement. “So, ready to brave the Oseram?” he asked, knowing full well she was ready to brave anything even before she’d met the first.

“A bit too late to ask me that, don’t you think?” Aloy rolled her eyes, tone unconvinced but determined.

“No fourth or fifth thoughts?” Erend bit back a cheeky grin, trying his best to sound innocent. The comforting hand on his shoulder slid down to punch him in the arm. “Ow! Okay, okay!”

“Well, your turn,” the Nora cast him a glance over her shoulder as she bid her mount to follow her down the slope. “What’s the story here?”

“Okay, so…” Erend took a breath as he followed along, pondering where to start. “You probably know this, but every time you enter an Oseram place, look for the forge. The biggest and meanest will do…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After months of being unable to write due to circumstance, I suppose I’ve a tale to finish. I wasn’t even sure whether to come back to it, but in the odd case anyone still remembers what the fourth or fifth thoughts comment is about, I’d hate to leave you hanging.
> 
> This chapter and the next were originally meant to be a single piece, but it got really annoyingly long and thus ended up split (with the talks about upbringing and head-on collisions with certain Oseram ending up under the cut, so more on that next time).
> 
> I’ve also been introduced to two more fandoms over my break, with my friend trying to tempt me into third one, so I have some very rabid plot devils running about. That said, I suspect Horizon will remain one of my fondest playgrounds, and I’ve definitely a few ideas left in that department.


End file.
